China’s Great Wall Motors contemplating India entry

Posted on Dec 11 2012 - 2:54pm IST

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Chinese SUV specialist Great Wall Motors is exploring the possibilities to foray into highly competitive Indian auto market on their own.

NDTV Profit reports that the 8th largest Chinese car maker is in talks with Indian government to set up a shop here. The company has sent a group of delegates to India last week to explore the chances. They reportedly have a target of setting up a manufacturing unit by 2016.

Mr. Vishnu Mathur, Director General of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) told in an interview to Reuters that, “They (Great Wall Motors) are looking at coming into India to set up manufacturing. They are meeting industry, they are meeting government, they are meeting suppliers.”

He also added that Great Wall executives met with SIAM officials last week but he declined to discuss about the investment planned.

Great Wall is the largest SUV maker in China and is also the largest independent Chinese auto manufacturer. If the company sets up a plant in India, it would become the first Chinese company to establish a wholly owned subsidiary in India. SAIC another Chinese company owns 9% stake in GM India.

It is to be noted that the Great Wall Haval H5 SUV was caught testing in India earlier this year. The Haval H5 has passed the Euro-NCAP tests and also has a decent interior making it a rival to SUVs like Mahindra XUV500, Tata Safari Storme and Force One.

If everything goes by plans, Great Wall Motors could start assembling its line of SUVs here in India. It would mean a massive investment since the Chinese company is believed to be entering India on its own without any partners.

Will Great Wall Motors manage to find enough number of takers to justify the hefty investment?

As a toddler, those wheeled machinery fascinated me even before I knew what they’re called as! So here I'm, petrolhead by birth, Mechanical engineer by qualification and automotive reporter by profession!

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Mohammed

Looks like Swift on steroids Not impressive enough, unfortunately ; leave alone the concerns about the overall quality.

Balu

Yes, GWM has good portfolio of products which may go well with indian tastes. The best one may be Haval M4 which is just below 4 meters and can take in MJD from fiat into it. Next one may be SUV Haval H6 which comes with 2.0lt/150hp CRDI engine, Third one is V80 MUV is straight against Innova. May take in the Haval H6’s engine for indian market.

http://indianautosblog.com Shrawan Raja

Sounds good on paper, but will they be able to make inroads in India breaking perceptions?

BMS

Can never compare a Toyota product with a (not so)Great wall thing. Chalk and cheese mate! Heck of a difference between them as far as built quality/performance is concerned.

Rajesh

Mmm….looks pretty and easy on the eye – inside n outside. Wonder why our own country folks can’t come up with something so simple and instead struggle to keep “improvising” 10+ year old models (read Safari Storme). If TATA had this kind of a vehicle in their portfolio, it would surely rake in nos. thereby establish itself as serious player in the market. At times, a copy + paste is not a bad option

Dmitry

Lot’s of them in Russia. It has some quality issues but is considered to be the most reliable Chinese car from the lot of Chinacars available there

Suhail Sood

These are complete P.O.S. Front end copied from previous gen Mazda CX9. Rest of it are bits and pieces from here and there.

BMS

Have seen this Great Wall SUV in Australia & people buy them once a while cause they are dirt cheap. They have also got safety issues & managed to get may be 1 star rating on ANCAP safety ratings.

apn

hey bms.. me in adelaide.. were u from??
yea i do agree with bms..its really rough while driving..
i liked xuv500 more